


Powered By Cube

by Julianaknows



Category: Elemental Masters - Mercedes Lackey
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-15
Updated: 2018-06-14
Packaged: 2019-05-23 12:51:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 18,901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14934594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Julianaknows/pseuds/Julianaknows
Summary: The Elementals are a species unique to the surrounding life in a world much like Earth. They possess what are called Power Cubes, small cubes that store magical essence that gives them their powers.There has always been two rules in their world: One, don't break your Cube. Protect it at all costs. And two, NEVER Power Swap.Not much detail was ever given or spoken about regarding Power Swaps. So what really is Power Swapping? I guess you'll have to read to find out.





	1. The Cube Concept

Vivet crossed the forest floor, calmly shooting stems and seeds at obstacles in her path from a point of her toe. Her arms were filled with bundles of flowers, herbs, and ingredients for new potions.

Shooting a log with a small daisy seed, Vivet watched as the wooden spear-like stick shot across the forest, and brought it to a slow descent with a long tendril shooting from her pinkie. This small motion resulted in a few buttercups falling from her grasp.

"Dang it!" Vivet sighed. "It's fine," she told herself, "I can go gather some more in the morning."

The moon was rising steadily, and Vivet was losing light. Squinting her eyes, she could make out the looming shape of her home.

Nearing the hollowed out tree, Vivet shot out a few tansy leaves to brush the dangling flowered vines from her path. Heels clicking on the wood log path, Vivet hurried into her door, pushing it open and shutting it with her foot.

Once inside her tree, Vivet briskly walked to her birch worktable and dumped her load of materials onto in. Picking up the few that had fallen onto the floor, she placed the bundle onto the table and dusted her hands off on her dress.

Walking carefully yet briskly up her toadstool steps, Vivet emerged into her floral bedroom, the walls dotted with fairy lights, and the floor littered with many plant-shaped furniture.

Vivet sat on her bloom bed, shaped as a blossomed flower, that she had extended from a chair to a full sized bed. She lay on her colorful throw-pillows and gazed out the large window, sighing.

Vivet stayed like that for some time, before her eyes darted to a light wooden dresser, as any person would have in their room.

Finally rising from her bed, she went to the dresser, opening a small glass container (similar to one from Beauty and the Beast holding the rose) and taking out a tiny green cube, glowing and littered in tiny blossoms and plants.

Vivet stared at the small cube, rolling it over gently in her hands, careful not to drop it. For if she did, she would... well, she didn't quite know. No one had ever dropped their power cube. But there were deadly consequences if someone dropped it. They were all sure of that.

A loud knock on the door jerked Vivet from her daze, causing her hands to fumble to catch the cube she has tossed into motion when she jumped. Quickly placing it into the glass container, Vivet rushed down the toadstools to her door, where looking through the peephole, she spotted a familar face.

"Clara!" Vivet swung the door open and hugged her friend. Vivet froze, now remembering her almost fatal mistake. "You almost made me drop my cube!"

Clara laughed and pulled away. "Well at least here there's some action. Back at home, all Lux wants to do is stay in his room by the window. He found a way to refract light off his cube and is having the time of his life." Clara snickered. "Let's hope he doesn't drop it like someone I know."

"Oh shut up Clara, you know it's your fault."

"True."

Vivet then remembered the stack on herbs on her table. "Speaking of which, look at these new herbs I found-"

Vivet let out a yelp as she saw her pile of herbs begin slanting and falling onto the floor. Sprouting lilies from her feet as she ran bouncily across the room, Vivet shot and arm of vines to the table, surrounding it and pushing the leaves back upright. For good measure, Vivet manipulated the vines to tie around the table, tying her herbs down so they wouldn't fall.

Vivet walked slowly back to the door, where Clara was entering and made her way to the stairs. Breathing heavily, Vivet tried to scrunch her face to counter Clara's snickers. "A real mess you are today, Vivet. You should come with Lux and I. We're going to visit the lake."

"Can't," Vivet said emotionless, "I have lots of work to do."

Clara pushed Vivet's hand off her face as she wiped away sweat. "You could do some good away from here. You need a break."

Vivet shut the door and turned her back to Clara and to the table of herbs, knotting the vines as she spoke. "It's night, and my powers are weaker without light. No glucose, no powers."

Clara stood and turned Vivet back to the door. "You're forgetting who has light powers," Clara laughed. "Here, I'll make you a little sun so you can sprout those magic beans from your fingers."

"There's more to my cube than beans," Vivet mumbled as a sun hovered over her head. She could feel the flowers of her dress reaching out to it slightly.

"What was that, hon?" Clara spoke without turning to Vivet, leading her out the door by yanking the light from her head and outside the door.

"Just saying thank you. And give me that light back, I need it!" Vivet hurried out the door, slamming it closed.


	2. Moonlight By Lakeside

Leaving Vivet's house in the woods behind them, Clara and Vivet made their way across the dark overgrown forest floor. Occasionally shooting seeds or vines to clear the path, Vivet stayed close to the tiny sun Clara had forged for her. It definitely was helping her create the glucose she needed to use her Cube's provided powers.

At about twilight, the two reached the lake. It was a huge mass of water surrounded by trees and flanked by three symmetrical docks. Their friends sat by the farthest dock.

"Sylvia!" Clara suddenly burst into a run, and Vivet followed, trying not to trip on roots or skid on the sandy terrain.

"Clara, slow down! I don't have night vision like you!" Vivet made it to the shore, where Clara was already nearing the dock across the water. "Screw it," Vivet mumbled to herself.

The next minute was spent forming lilies under her feet as Vivet cautiously ran across the surface of the lake. Clara almost doubled over with laughter as Vivet reached the two.

"Lilies, Vivet? Oh my god..." Almost wiping a tear from her eye, Clara straightened up to face both girls.

Sylvia laughed and put her arm around the two girls. "Nice to see you too Clara. And you Vivet," she added with a smile.

Vivet was about to speak when a large splash broke through the air. Turning to face the lake once more, Vivet saw a huge ball of water and mud fly through the air before stopping an inch from her face. Confused and startled, Vivet took a step back, dripping over a wooden board in the dock before rightening herself on Clara.

Sylvia almost steamed with anger. "Hydra, drop the act!" Storming across the dock, Sylvia bent her head over the edge of the wooden platform to glare at Hydra, who was halfway submerged in the water. His hands were smeared in mud, and his face was flushed.

"You know, not having Water Essence in your cube really does make it hard to gather water herbs." Tossing a bundle of roots and small flowers to Vivet, Hydra got out of the water, his vest dripping with the stuff.

Regaining her confidence, Vivet approached Hydra slowly. "As grateful as I am for the herbs, a little warning would have been nice in order to not shatter my cube from all the way here!"

Hydra laughed it off. "Oh relax, Viv. You wouldn't want to miss the gun show." Flexing his very small amount of muscle, Hydra revealed his arms, and to a very unpleasant sight, they were lined in mud and leeches. "Forgive the houseguests," he joked.

While Clara started on how much of a fool he was, Vivet stared off into the dimming horizon, as the moon was rising and she felt herself grow weaker.

"I'm surprised little Plant Essence over here is even out at night." Hydra cocked an eye brow suspiciously.

"Trust me Hydra, I wouldn't be here if I could, but someone ran into my house and forced me out here. Speaking of which Clara, can you brighten that light please?"

Obeying, Clara grew the light, and Sylvia slightly shielded her eyes. Hydra scoffed at her motion and slapped her hand away, whispering something.

Clara looked offended, but clearly overdid it. "I'm hurt Hydra." She pretended to wipe a tear from her eye.

Sylvia simply shook her head.

~

Vivet found herself frozen in place, gazing at the moon, letting it's light absorb into her skin. Weirdly enough, there was a sufficient amount of light in the rays, so she wasn't as weak now. She had adapted to the night.

She tuned into the conversation a little, and heard Sylvia and Clara making bets about who could do the best water tricks. This sparked Vivet's interest.

Clara was saying something stupid. "...So I'll come in with a flip and you could-"

Vivet slammed her palms onto Clara's hand, her eyes showing with stars, almost as if her pupils had morphed into the starred shape. "I want to join."

Sylvia laughed for a few seconds before looking confused. "You're serious? Well, Vivet, you know that it's very dangerous to-"

"Oh, let her have her fun, Slyv," Hydra spoke with a monotone yet excited voice. "Let's see what a witch can do." He winked slightly at the trio, to Vivet's disgust.

Flipping him the bird behind her back, Vivet stood with her toes slightly hanging off the dock. "You know I hate that word. You see, witch isn't the right word... I would go with-" Vivet held her hands up and shot seeds, exploding inches from her fingertips. "-Sorceress!"

The Water Essence users were speechless. Clara was struck with a fit of enchanted cheering and laughing, even with confused words in a happy tone coming from her mouth. "Make it stop! I'm gonna cry!"

Vivet frowned. "Oh Clara, you can never handle a little hex. Who would have thought a laughing curse would be most stifling!"

Vivet raced across the lake, sprouting lilies and bluebells from leaf-pads. She shot marigold and poppy into the air, rubbing her vines (shot from her fingertips) so fast they caught fire, igniting the flowers. She skirted around the border, showering the group in rose petals of any color. 

She at last looped to the middle of the lake, where, balancing on a lily-pad, she spun on the toes of her slippers and leaped into a mid-air split, then doing a quick forward tuck, and using dandelion fluff to float her gracefully down to the lake. Building up enough water-moss on the surface and below, it appeared she was standing on water.

Clara burst into fits of cheering again, and Sylvia clapped along with her, dumbstruck and gripping onto Hydra's arm.

The night ended with the pair of Water Elementals cracking jokes and Clara lighting flowers on fire from water droplets (like magnifying glasses).


	3. Sarcastic Stranger

The morning began sluggishly after the long night at the lake. Vivet had seen enough of Water Elementals for one night, but she still could feel the moonlight in her lungs.

She hadn't opened her eyes since she woke, and with them closed she could see the memory clearly: the moss forming under her toes, the illusion of her floating almost seemed real to the one who had staged it.

Opening her eyes, she could still see her improvised routine, she heard the cheers of her friends as her almost magical herb show came to a close. She felt her flowering dress still tugging at the sky, after the light had burnt out.

Vivet realized she had been staring at the wall, still curled up in her bloom bed. Sitting up and stretching, she slid on her slippers. She took a quick look at the glass dome (I had to google what I should call the container, and I am very proud of myself) to make sure the Cube was still intact and... well, there. After her small panic was pushed back into its usual nook in the back of her head, she slipped out of her soft leaf robe and into her usual short dress. Her flowers were back to normal, which meant today couldn't get much worse (There's a thing where depending on the mood of the flowers, a different outcome could arise. Idk just something I thought of).

After briskly walking down the toadstools into her main living area, Vivet scurried over to the lab/kitchen, where she pushed aside her potion stand and pulled a clean dish from the cauldron that doubled as a sink. She had just opened her cabinet of neatly sorted herbs when she realized something. They looked, and felt, like they were just sorted the night before. Only she had been out that night, and never sorted them.

A shiver ran down her spine. She had never seen any other Elemental who knew about herbs except other Plant Elementals. But she had never met another Plant Elemental. So who else could have sorted the herbs?

At once footsteps appeared from the back sitting room, and full of fear, Vivet summoned a sharp tendril of thorned vine. The footsteps approaching, Vivet did something she had never done before.

She ripped the vine out of her hand.

Holding in a scream, Vivet bit her lips and tried to seal her hand's gaping hole with mushed herb and petals. It held like sap in a tree, and her pain instantly went away. The footsteps stopped, and she heard something like a long magical sparkle from her room.

Vivet ran up the stairs and saw her cube glowing. It seemed to be expanding to the size of a mango, then shrinking to a grape, and back to a cube. Once it had turned back to normal, her hand was mended.

Now forgetting the trauma of the Cube's transformation (I would hardly call it that), she remembered the something in her house.

Speeding down the stairs, she ran into the sitting room, now face to face with a strange looking Elemental. Looking closer, she noticed the yellow tint in his skin and clothes, and thought of Clara.

"Just blow in from the Light Branch?" Vivet shrunk her vine back into her hand, the thorns scraping the newly formed skin, causing the Elemental to cringe.

"Indeed I have. And as someone who cares for plants, I'll have to say that your skin doesn't look too good."

Vivet looked to her hand. "What's wrong with my... Oh no." The "skin" was suddenly shades of brown and green. "Well I guess leaves aren't a good substitute for skin."

The strange boy narrowed his eyes and took a step forwards. Vivet let him.

"It isn't the leaves' fault, you just haven't dried them and solidified them in your 'skin'. And you're right, that isn't a good substitute. I would have used purely sunflower petals if I were you."

Vivet tried to stop herself from gaping at this boy's knowledge. He looked a bit older than her, but most Light Elementals knew nothing of herbs. "How would you know that," she gawked, trying to stop her shock from coming into her voice.

The boy seemed to notice anyways. "I've always admired Plant Elementals. I had a friend as one, before he moved away. He let me study herbs with him. I can tell by your reaction that you don't get that too often."

Vivet clenched her fist, and winced at the leaves' failure to stay firm.

"Here, let me." The boy took her hand in his and pressed them together, shutting his eyes. His skin began to glow and warmth spread through Vivet's hand like the Sun had just gotten a thousand times hotter.

Once her hand was released, Vivet saw the leaves had now turned to a deep brown, but were now solid and painlessly stuck. "It doesn't look like skin, but I can use some stuff to color it."

"Maybe some birch sap and sawdust mix."

"Good idea!" Vivet walked off to her kitchen, a full bowl of the mixture on the table with a small flower as an applier. Suddenly Vivet remembered the stranger's presence. He had come to watch and was leaning on the kitchen wall. "Who are you? And how did you get into my house?"

The stranger laughed. "What, no thanks for organizing your herbs?" The stranger bit his nail before continuing. "But for real. My name is Lux, and I'm sure Clara has mentioned me to you before."

Vivet remembered Clara speaking of him the day before, right before their visit to the lake. "Oh right." She straightened herself. "That still doesn't explain how you got in. I always have the nightlock planted to guard at night."

"You think it isn't easy to uproot a puny stem like that?" Lux laughed, his tanned shoulders bouncing with each exhale of it. "Don't worry," he added, noticing Vivet steaming at the mention of her uprooted plants. "I replanted them this morning when they had fallen asleep. No need for a nightlock to try to be a buttercup. And I don't see any buttercup guards out there."

Vivet silently cursed. "I didn't find any last time I went to the meadow."

Lux sneered. "I'm surprised. Normally Evan found loads. They stand out in the reds and blues, Vivy..." He made his way to the table and sat next to Vivet. He tugged on her elbow, indicating that he wanted to see it. "Looks better already."

"Thanks to you," she breathed. His sarcastic attitude seemed unlikely for someone with Light Essence.

"I find your herb collection is a bit more... exotic, than that of my friend's. He had the standard roses and tulips and whatnot... You have tigerlilies?" Lux peered into the open herb store.

"Oh, of course," Vivet conveyed. "Perfect for flaming arrow tips. The Hunter Elementals go crazy for the stuff during Elemental conventions." Vivet sighed, remembering the shining forts of the Hunter Elementals. "Nothing their tribes couldn't need, or so I thought. Who would think that the common flower I grow out front can be useful?"

"Hm." Lux pondered this as he picked up the leafed brush and spread the tan mixture onto Vivet's hand.

Lux had stayed and told Vivet stories of his troublesome cousin, stories that Vivet had never heard of. She laughed at her friend's bad decisions and all of the messes she had made.

"Nice fairy lights," Nix had said when she ran upstairs with him to grab an oak leaf for a potion he was teaching her to make.

"Thanks." Vivet stared at the lights she had strung so long ago, and she had thought back to when she made them. "Dyes do wonders with Light."

Lux had only laughed. "I could help with that. Come on, grab that leaf and some light molds."

The day turned to night, and with night, came the fairy light creation. Vibrant lights now replaced the old, and Vivet had beamed at Lux, who was smiling very wide.


	4. Small Advice Goes a Long Way

"Hey, is there any reason in particular why your sitting outside by yourself?"

Vivet was seated on a damp piece of moss on her wooden balcony pondering what had just happened when a voice appeared behind her. "W-who's there?" Vivet looked around before her eyes set on a small snail on the railing. Its shell was a spiraled blend of blues and greens. Even the creature's body was blended in that scheme.

"I'm just curious, I guess... about why you're out here in the middle of the night." The tiny snail's eyes widened as Vivet peered into its tiny pupils.

Vivet felt the rustle of the leaves in the trees and the low call of crickets in her throat. She had been working toward her goal of moonlight adjustment, and so far she was okay. But she had never seen another creature speak to her. "Just thinking, I guess... A lot has happened since this morning, and I just need a place to be alone."

The tiny snail looked sad as Vivet looked away from it. "Oh... I guess I can just go-"

"No!" Vivet found herself yelling before lowering her voice back to normal. "I mean, it's nice to have someone non-Elemental to talk to."

"Well, it seems pretty lonely out here," the snail sighed, its eyes filling with stars' reflections. "I'm Cochlea by the way!"

Vivet let out a short laugh. "Cochlea, huh? A nice name for such a pretty snail."

Cochlea looked flushed, if it was even possible for a snail to blush. "Th-thank you!" She looked around and drew out of her shell more. "I don't really have anywhere to go, so if you don't mind I guess I'll sit out here too!"

Vivet's mood brightened a bit. This tiny snail was the first creature she had actually paid close attention to since she discovered the goldenrod, and that memory was far back.

Cochlea inched her way to a drier patch of the railing. "Let me just, find a dry place to sit here..." The snail stuck her little tongue out like a painter carefully inspecting their piece.

Vivet snorted out a puff of air before scooching her moss closer to the railing. She lay her hands over it, and rested her head on her wrists.

The two sit like that for a while in silence, listening to the nighttime forest sounds and watching the moon slowly rise.

At last Cochlea silently cleared her throat. "Well this sure is... something."

The two were silent again for a few seconds before Cochlea felt tense. "Well, I bet you're wondering what I'm doing up so late. I mean, it's not like I can't sleep." Cochlea turned to Vivet so her tiny, stubby feet were visible.

"Snails like my kind don't really need to sleep. No," Cochlea seemed to be speaking to herself, "Before this I was, well admittedly sitting in the trunk of this tree watching you come out here and sit down." The little nasally voice snickered.

Vivet summoned some moss from her fingers and massaged it into a small rug. "Do you want to..."

"Oh!" Cochlea's eyes sparkled when she saw the soft alternative to the wood. "Of course! Thank you." Slowly, she slithered onto the moss and lay down once more. "Soft..." she muttered.

Vivet let out a soft laugh and watched the small snail admiringly. "I wonder, how life can be so simple, so peaceful, for a snail with your character."

"Oh it can be, but at most times I worry. How to get food and water before I dry up, how to avoid birds when I crawl so slow. I used to prod my toes with sticks to make me speed up! Of course, it didn't work too well... it usually left a bloody trail leading birds right to me!"

Cochlea went on about the dangers of moving so slow while Vivet watched her movement, such a dainty and delicate motion. She silently wondered how Cochlea didn't break her small legs from her sticks prodding them along.

Cochlea finally realized her length of the conversation side. "Oh sorry, I'm rambling. It isn't really that bad. But how about you? You, um, got anything you wanna say? Something on your mind?"

No response.

"I'm totally all ears," tried Cochlea, "Even though you can't really see them!"

Vivet sighed. "Yes I do actually. Today was both horrible, and wonderful."

"How can that be? Two opposite emotions at once? Why, it's impossible!" Cochlea looked dumbfounded.

Vivet smiled at the small animal and her memories drifted back. "Well, did you see the Light Elemental come over last night?"

Cochlea nodded slowly. "I should have warned you." She looked ashamed to disapoint her new friend.

"No, it's fine." Vivet took a deep breath of starlight and continued. "Well he snuck in, uprooted my nightlock, organized my herbs, and helped me make fairy lights."

"That seems... like mixed results. Good on the herb sorting and lights-" Cochlea began to count her legs, "-but awful for the nightlock and sneaking into your house when you were sleeping!"

"But at the end of the night, before I came out here, he told me to come join him at the Light Branch."

"Mmhmm...?"

Vivet paused, looking shockingly at Cochlea. "The Sun Branch, Cochlea! No opposing Elementals get invited there unless it's to court!" She groaned, running her hands down her face.

"Oh. Yeah, I get that." The snail took a deep breath. "So basically, you've just been having really mixed feelings about this guy and can't court him."

Vivet didn't seem to hear her. "Maybe he just doesn't know about that law. Maybe he never was taught about it. Maybe if he didn't spend all his time studying with a different Elemental, he could have learned about his own group and known how wrong he is being!"

Cochlea sharply inhaled. Vivet had smashed her hand onto Cochlea's leg. "Oh, god! I am so sorry Cochlea!"

Cochlea just winced. "I'm okay... Hey, you create herbs. Magic me up some marigold, would you?"

Once the marigold was mashed and applied, Cochlea had a dried palm to support her twig-like leg.

"Well back to the conversation," she painfully said. "In the words of a wise space rock, 'If you just dwell on things that stress you out, that doesn't exactly fix anything."

"What?" Vivet had lost Cochlea's point of view. What was this about a space rock? "Wha- whatever."

"The growing process, come on Vivet. You have two options. You can either choose to go with him and be courted, or you can say no and wait until someone you trust asks you." Cochlea was gazing into the woods like any minute a starry ghost deer would pop out and give them the meaning of life."

Vivet hesitated. "Well, I could always tell Clara to give him the information. Maybe she can even take me so it could be less weird. Girls can't court someone unless they are twenty, and Clara has a few more years until then."

"So do you have a plan now?"

Vivet straightened. "Yes, Cochlea, I think I do!" Getting up, she began to walk into her room when- 

"Wait! Don't you want to come inside with me? You said it yourself, birds are after you. And I always see birds nesting in this tree." Vivet felt sorry for the snail and didn't look forward to seeing her shell empty the next morning.

"I'll be okay. I have your trunk for shelter. I've lived there for a few years now and never had a problem." She did almost a "snail shrug".

The two parted ways and Vivet slid the door shut, keeping her back pressed against it. She let out her breath and walked to her dresser. Seeing herself in the reflection of her glass dome, she wiped mud off her face. "You grow from the experience, good or bad. Cochlea would back you up on that too," she told herself.

Vivet quickly dressed in her robe, put her slippers by the side of her bed and walked to the door. She made sure it was locked and had an idea. She ran to her dresser and scribbled something down on a leaf parchment. She used sap to stick it to the outside of the door for Nix to read when he came to wake her up early in the morning.

She locked the door again and crawled into bed, hoping Nix would respect her choice. "Time to hit the hay," she whispered to herself.

Within minutes she had fallen asleep. The sapped parchment was ripped off the wall and flipped when she woke up. On her side, she had written:

NIX,

I MADE MY DECISION AND I WON'T BE JOINING YOU TOMORROW. I HOPE YOU CAN RESPECT MY CHOICE. TELL CLARA I SAY HI. AND IF YOU AREN'T GONE BY MORNING, I'LL HAVE A THORN IN YOUR THROAT WHEN YOU WAKE. MAYBE WORSE. SO SEE YOU SOMETIME IN THE DISTANT FUTURE.

A FRIEND (OR NOT),

VIVET ❀ 

On the side that had been ripped off and restuck, a smaller note was scribbled:

VIVET,

I RESEPCT YOUR CHOICE. I ALSO DON'T WANT A THORN IN THE NECK. KINDA NEED IT TO SAY HI TO CLARA FOR YOU. I'LL BE GONE BEFORE YOU WAKE.

A FRIEND (OR NOT),

NIX ☆ 

P.S. I LEFT SOME STUFF I GATHERED AT DAWN ON THE WORKTABLE


	5. Seashells

The morning had started off with no real issues. Vivet had read Lux's note, gotten dressed, and set herself in the kitchen with her fairy light wire tangled around her tigerlily.

She spent some time unknotting it before she gave up and stuck some thorns to slice it apart. She was at first disappointed about the loss of her wire, but she soon got over it.

To her surprise, after Lux's visit all her herb stores seemed to empty. Deciding on a recipe to get her mind off him, Vivet chose to create a lion paw pendant, but the only way she could craft the claws were to break up blue and red shells. 

"Now let's see, the shells should be..." Vivet trailed off, noticing the shell supply completely dry. "Oh god, well I can go get some more by the shore in a few minutes."

Quickly gathering the other needed materials, Vivet slipped on her shoes and set off towards the shore.

Now, the thing that had kept Vivet from the shore so long was the memories. The shore she had liked to gather herbs from had become the place where moonlight first intrigued her. But she never went because of that.

"Lux can't just do another Elemental's job," Vivet thought out loud, "So neither can I. I'd rather live without the feeling of moonlight than lose my place in my Plant Cube's respect. Essence doesn't change."

Finally at the shore but still muttering to herself, Vivet began gathering shells.

"Trying to make the claw, I see?"

"Lux, I don't have time for this. I thought I told you to leave me alone." Vivet didn't have to turn from the shells to know his voice.

"No, nope, nopey, you just said to leave your house. And by the looks of it, you seem like you need someone to keep your stress levels low."

"I'm not stressed out," Vivet stubbornly said, accidentally smashing a shell in her fist and clenching it to avoid blood seeping. It slipped through her fingers anyways, so she dunked her hand in the water, pretending to search in it.

Lux crossed his arms and leaned against the nearby tree. "Mmhmm."

He walked over and lay a hand on her shoulder. "So why is it that you're only gathering pink and green shells?"

Vivet froze, looking to her hand slowly and sighing. "I guess I'm pretty out of it huh?"

"I can see that. I mean really Vivet, you know you can't make claws with red and blue shells, so your mind must have been scrambled for you to think and act differently."

Vivet pondered this. "I guess so- WAIT, I never told you I was making lion claws for my pendant. Lux, what did you do?"

Lux's smile faded into a worried and embarrassed frown. "Ugh, sorry. My friend came into town- you remember Evan- and he snuck mind mushrooms into my coffee. I keep reading the thoughts of animals and you're the first person besides him I've seen, and read, all day."

Vivet stuffed the shells into her cloaked satchel and rolled her eyes. "Well could you not read me? I have some stuff I want to think about alone."

"No can do sister, it's impossible unless you're underwater or somewhere super far away, which I highly doubt-"

Lux was cut off by a splash as Vivet leapt into the lake. She swam to the floor and curled into a depressed ball, but instead of crying or thinking about emotional crap, she just... sat. She sat there at the bottom, listening to Lux's drowned out voice and fiddling with a zipper on her satchel. She pulled out some kelp and tied it around her mouth and nose. Taking a deep breath of water, the kelp was now turning it to air.

Vivet sat, breathing in the kelp-y air and trying not to laugh at Lux's flustered attempts to get her back up. She ran her hands through her bag of shells, feeling some roughed with lines, and other smooth from the waves (Do lakes have waves?). She saw Lux eventually give in and start to leave.

"Fine I get it," his drowned out voice said weakly, "you need your space. I'm leaving now." She watched him get up and walk away from the water. Just to be sure he had really left, she sent up a spy plant, and through its eyes, she saw him three forests away, running back to his cabin. She zoomed in on him entering his house.

She didn't want to snoop, she just wanted to get back at him. But she wasn't interested in revenge. No, she was more interested about this Evan.


	6. Photosynthesis

Through the spying vine, Vivet thinned the plant out, making it almost invisible to the Elemental eye. She watched as Lux entered his small cabin, paying close attention to the wooden logs encasing the true house. She noticed nothing fishy; the logs were carved with Sun Elemental markings and they had a warm tint to the color.

Of course, she thought, he wouldn't make the outside plant-esk, that would be too suspicious.

Vivet focused on his door. She watched as it disappeared and reappeared, as any light door would do. "They are made of light, so they can go through light." Vivet tried to stop the cold of the lake from taking her out of her spying trance-like state. She needed more information in Lux's motives.

Unhinging herself from the tree branches high above his cabin, Vivet stashed herself along the walls with the other growing vines. She mirrored the surrounding vines to better her chance of not being detected. Vaguely using the leaves as tiny cameras, Vivet broke off her vine's connection and depended on the wind.

It did as she hoped: the wind blew the leaves into the slowly fading opening in Lux's windows and stashed them in different parts of the room. The leaves would have no problem being undetected since the entire room was covered in leaves.

Flowering vines draped from the ceiling, while toadstools much like Vivet's own steps decorated the floor. Sprouts of herbs grew in window-boxes hidden just below the sill. Vivet could hardly believe her eyes- well, the leaves' eyes.

She spotted Lux in the corner, fiddling with a small yellow panel with a button labeled gnikaolc, which Vivet recognized as cloaking backwards. "What a clever bean," she gargled into the water. "So creative. I'll have to tell him that when I confront him."

Lux finally stepped away from the button, muttering loudly to himself. Vivet only caught a few sentences, like "stupid button was off" and "was here for everyone to peer in and see". Vivet tried to stop herself from laughing to avoid choking on the current (do lakes have current?).

Lux went on with his work, walking from window to window to make sure no one was watching. Vivet tried to blend in with the blowing vines, but the manipulation she had over hers kept her from moving. So she tried to sway naturally,

But as it should be when you're spying on someone, blending in was no easy task. So Vivet simply spread out her view upon the leaves and decided to almost record everything. She had a shell rubbed with sage and thyme unconsciously before cutting her physical connection with the leaves. She now had that shell as a monitor for her leaf cameras. She decided to didn't want to wake around for ever for Lux to suddenly do something.

So Vivet swam upwards, her eyes locked on her surroundings, but her peripheral vision focused on the cameras. Lux was now parading around his kitchen, and when she could no longer see his view, she enhanced all of the cameras and had around six views to look at. She now saw what he saw.

As she watched, Vivet sprung vines and berries around to keep the forest away as she made her way home. The sun was still high in the sky, and this only caused her to not be able to see the screen as well.

The sun got so bright that Vivet had to fashion sunglasses from very thin leaves. It wasn't ideal, but what else could she do? She could wait until her tinted windows protected her. So Vivet tore the leaves from her dress and continued on her way.

The cameras suddenly all dropped dead except one. From the looks of it, Lux's room had gone dark too. Vivet rushes up the steps to her house and sprawled our on her kitchen chair. She focused on the one camera view and pushed the other black screens away. The thing about leaf cameras was that without light, the shrivel and die, defeating their purpose.

Vivet watched as Lux tried to use his sunlight to enhance the room's brightness, but he only got a faint glow. The lights flickered and suddenly a huge spark flew across the room, shattering the bulbs and lighting the vines on fire.

"Not the vines!" Lux yelped as he stumbled over some toadstools. He shot his hand out as he fell, a sudden burst of wet flowers shooting from it. The vines stopped burning, and Lux stared at his hands, rubbing his scraped knee with his other. He had a horrified expression on his face.

"It can't happen, n-not yet..." Lux's hands began to shake as he summoned a small petal to his hands. He suddenly jumped up, rushing around and grabbing certain items and shoving them into a small bag. Only the bag didn't fill, it seemed to be able to fit anything large in it.

Vivet watched in horror as Lux took one look at his cabin, recloaked the room, and shot a large seed at the panel, shattering it. The room was sunny and bright as he walked out the door and sprinted into the forest, his bag bouncing along behind him.

Vivet cut the connection with her leaves, laying a hand on her knee. She was shaking with fear. Lux had finally gone too far.

Jumping from her chair, Vivet summoned a leaf to blow to Lux with a small not scribbled on it. Lux, come to my house as soon as you get this parchment. It's urgent and I need your help, and by the looks of it, you need mine too.

-

So Vivet had sat on her toadstools, awaiting Lux's arrival. A few hours later he had knocked on the door and was now sitting beside Vivet with his hands on his face.

"I knew I should have been more careful, that's why I stuck away from Plant Elementals. I didn't-"

"I don't want to hear it Lux! You Power Swapped! Only advanced Elementals could do that, and there hasn't been one in years!" Vivet shot a seed from her hand in anger. It knocked over a vile of bright purple dust, lighting the counter on fire.

Lux didn't look up, but he shot a wet flower at the counter to put the fire out. Then he turned to Vivet. "What am I supposed to do Vivet? I can't just keep running. Clara will come back and see I'm gone, and what do I do then?"

Vivet places a hand on his shoulder to stop his rambling. " Lux, we can figure this out." She quickly pulled her hand away. "But you know if I help you, you can't tell the others, and you can never go home."

Lux nodded, grief leaving his face. "I know. I knew it would happen eventually. I tried to prevent it as long as possible."

"It didn't work. You broke the only rule we have. So there's only one thing to do. Come with me."

Vivet dragged Lux by the wrist up the steps to a long blank wall next to her own door. She signaled him to place his hands on a small circular outline. 

The circle began to glow a yellow-green, fading to a deep green pine. The light dimmed as a sharp line jeered down the center of the circle. A deep brown door-frame materialized around the wide glowing area.

Vivet held her breath, hoping the doors would open into a Plant Elemental room. If it turned to Sun, well... she didn't know what she would do.

The line spread vertically like a vine to each door-frame. The two halves split apart, and with a shudder, the doorway opened.

The room was at once showered in countless leaves and flower petals, the congratulations of creating a new room. Bright light shone through the huge windows, casting shadows around the room. A small prism hanging from the window cast a rainbow line over a mirror/dresser. A rack of soft fabrics stood in the corner.

"It looks like your room, but bigger and... Plant-ier."

"I guess it does- wait, how would you know. Clara has never taken you to my cabin, I hope. I strictly forbid it." Lux cocked an eyebrow at Vivet.

Vivet went red, an unusual contrast to her bright green and pink dress. She felt their petals grow weak and wilt to the side. They too, were embarrassed about spying. "I may have used the... spying vine in your room the night you found me at the lake."

"Vivet, you know you shouldn't-"

"Anyways, shall we get to your outfit?" Vivet quickly rushed over to the rack and pulled a few deep green and brown cloths from their hangers. The wooden hangers splintered back upon her grasp. "There is surely much to do. Have you seen the fade of your vest?"

Lux suddenly looked down, rushing to the mirror with a horror-struck look. "The yellow..."

"Yes, that's why you don't have Light Essence flowing through you much anymore. Your clothes lost connection with your Cube because of the Power Swap. Speaking of which, do you have your cube? I think we should get the transformation over with."

Lux swung his bag onto his knees and pulled out wads of soft leaves and dandelion fluff. He unwrapped a leaf and cotton bundle, removing his cube from the nature contents. "I wanted to be extra careful. What would happen if the Cube shattered as I was running?"

"Nothing good I suppose," Vivet said quietly, bent over a small loom and sewing machine by a the dresser. She pulled out a vine marked with inches and centimeters. "Just relax for a minute and let me get your measurements."

Placing the Cube on a sheet of moss, Vivet rolled it in honey and watched its green show through the glass. "Gorgeous isn't it? I love transformations! A shame it doesn't happen more often."

"At least I won't have wonky Light Essence pouring from my ears. A figure of speech," he added quickly. Lux shot a vine across the room, shattering a clay pot on the dresser.

"Perhaps you should take that outside and practice on the dummies."

"You have dummies?"

"How do you think I practice? And if you're wondering, I made a bow from wood and vines. Very sturdy, so my pine wood arrows splintered the branches. It hurt the tree, so I built some targets. Go knock yourself out."

-

Once Vivet had jotted down the numbers and marked the fabrics, she cut the fabric to the desired length. She sewed it together with stalk and grain stems. She dyed it with all natural plant grounds. After leaving it to dry in the setting sun, she brushed the fibers out.

"Um, why are you using a currycomb on it?" Lux yelled from the hall, wiping the leaves from his vest and shutting the door to the back. "Is it made from horse hair or something?"

"It's to prevent shedding, and to split the fibers to dry them. You'll be thankful when you aren't covered in pollen," Vivet smirked. "It's a Plant Elemental's worst nightmare."

Lux's heavy footsteps pierced the air as he jogged to his room. " Can it protect me from leaves and dirt?"

"Why maybe if I rub it with beetle mucus, it can repel mud and dust..."

"Dear Essence Vivet, I would rather sprout a third arm!"

"At least you could carry more herbs," Vivet snickered, watching the expression on Lux's face grow dark. "You know you could alter your form any time you wanted. Regrow a limb with the right herbs, I think. I did regrow my hand."

Lus scoffed. "Not like it was severed off. Regrowing skin is simple, limbs take time."

"I never said it would be quick."

"That detail was left out from what you stated then, I suppose?"

"Can it, flowerboy."

"Don't call me that!"

-

The sun had finally set when Vivet had finished getting Lux set up. 

"You'll get me if you need anything?" Vivet rubbed a few leaves together at the mirror and applied the sticky substance to sores on her hands. "Are your hands sore? You want some aloe?"

Lux pushed her out the door. "Don't baby me, Vivet. I can handle one night in a new room. I have some decent powers again." Shifting in his new clothes, he smiled. "Thanks for everything, by the way. I guess Clara did me a favor by telling me about you."

Vivet's heartbeat quickened. "Clara told me you never thanked people. I wouldn't expect anything less, though. So you're welcome." 

The two were silent for a few minutes, both with their hands on opposite door handles, lost in thought. 

So this is how we will be for now on, Vivet thought to herself, Vivet and Lux, the stowaway and the savior. Vivet grinned, savior, how ridiculous.

"What are you grinning about?" Lux's voice cut into her thoughts. 

Her smile lingered on as she drifted back into consciousness. "Nothing important."

Lux simply smiled back. "Okay then. Goodnight Vivet." He slowly shut the door, locking eyes with Vivet as he did.

Vivet's hand lingered for a few seconds after the door had clicked closed. The light from Lux's room had closed off, plunging the hall into darkness. "Goodnight," she said softly.

Vivet pulled away, quietly padding back into her room and closing the door. She sat on her bed, rubbing her hand up and down her arm, smudging the aloe and sending pain through her hand. A small cut began to bleed, but she felt nothing.


	7. Roses Come With Thorns

Vivet woke up to the smell of caramel drifting through a crack in her door. Someone had opened it the night before. "Probably just Lux,"Vivet thought out loud. 

She rolled out of bed, groaning. Her shoulder was killing her, but in an attempt to stretch it, she sent a sharp stabbing pain through her arm. Wincing, she slipped a robe over her sleepwear.

Glancing at her Cube, she noticed a small paper box with a wonderful smell wafting from it. She eagerly opened it, grabbing a small caramel candy and popping it in her mouth. Vivet felt the sugars de-materialize and she let the candy melt in her mouth. A small drizzle of caramel ran down her chin. She didn't bother to wipe it.

Sliding on her slippers, Vivet quickly braided her hair and sluggishly walked down the stairs. The kitchen was covered in bowls of honey, brown sugar, and vanilla beans piled on the table.

"Good, you're awake. And I see you found the caramel I left you,"Lux snickered, leaning over and wiping the caramel from Vivet's chin. She wet a thick leaf and rubbed the leftover sugars from her face.

"Why are you suddenly in the baking mood? I haven't seen an Elemental eat something in decades," Vivet teased. Dipping her finger in the nearest bowl, to Lux's over exaggerated disgust, Vivet pressed caramel sauce onto his nose.

Hissing, Lux grabbed the wet leaf from her hand and wiped his nose. "Well as a matter of fact, baking is good practice for finding new herb combinations. I went out this morning and gathered some sweets. I figured a treat could be good."

Vivet laughed. "Already adjusted, I see? That's good though, because I need you to grab the spare satchel from your dresser and go grab some pixie dust from the forest. I expect you saw some golden leafed apple trees on your little Sweet Adventure."

"As a matter of fact I did, and I already used the satchel to carry the vanilla stalks here. I used a lot for the caramel, maybe more than I should have, so that's why the load looks so... unimpressive." Lux gestured to the small satchel on the table. It was crushed under a bowl of sugar-water.

"Careful, these things are hard to come by!" Vivet snatched the bag, rubbing out the wrinkles. "It sure smells like vanilla," she noted, shaking the powder from the bag and onto the pile of vanilla stalks.

Lux didn't turn to face her. "No worries. I found another one in a dungeon I came across today. I also stumbled upon... THIS!" Lux through a small silver cube at Vivet. It had small cracks in it, filled with rainbow lights. A small triangle was formed between the lines, looking like a button.

Vivet stared at its lines,watching the lights fade from color to color. Suddenly she realized what the cube was. "Lux... You're kidding."

"You're right." Lux pressed a button on a small remote and the cube poofed into the air. 

"Lux!" Vivet watched the grey tinted air shimmer before turning to pebbles. The small rocks clanked against a metal bowl on the table. They showered into the heating butter, causing Lux to frown.

He straightened his frown. "Here's the real one."

Another cube was thrust into the air, this one's lights rapidly speeding up their fading times, until another click of the remote shot the triangle up. The box unfolded into a small metal frame around a glowing blue screen.

Vivet stared at Lux, mouth gaping, through the translucent blue screen. She watched his image sway, and imagined herself staring into fire. Her eyes burned at the image of it.

Her face must have gone red with the imaginary fire involved, as Lux laughed and shot a seed at the triangle's top. The button pushed back in and the cube folded back up. He slowly walked to Vivet, his arms outstretched. "Admit it, you're impressed."

Vivet dodged him by escaping under his arm and leaned against the counter, still star-y eyed. "Of course I'm impressed," she breathed, trying to focus on Lux again. "But you can't just spring the concept of Cube Screen onto me and expect me to not be surprised!"

Lux leaned against the opposite counter, balancing the Cube Screen on the top of his palm. "I get that. But it is exciting. I studied enough to know about Elemental History, Vivet."

"Well sorry for not feeling like a Power Swapped Elemental knows about Plant history. You must have been studying illegally for some time now?"

Lux lost his concentration and dropped the Cube onto his foot. "Maybe...?"

Vivet sighed. "So how did you think it would go? If you had been studying long enough, you would know about Power Swapping, it's in the books!"

"Who says I read the books? Where would I get them?" Lux's foot was shaking now, at the strain for not dropping the Cube Screen. It was expected to be as fragile as a Power Cube, but of course, less signifigant.

"Fair point. But where would you have gotten this?" Vivet held a spiraled spell book she had found sticking out of Lux's bag. His eyes grew wide and alarmed.

"Where did you find that? Don't you know it's rude to take people's things?"

A sharp pain went through Vivet's right hand, but she ignored it. She had done a lot of writing the previous night, so her hand was just sore because of it.

"Don't you know it's rude to lie to someone's face?" Vivet countered back, cocking her head to the side and grinning a sarcastic smile. "You shouldn't hide stuff like this from me, Lux, you don't know what you're doing with it."

"I-"

"You may have read the books, but that's nothing compared to being born into the study and being taught to use it. I'm sure Evan wasn't too much help."

Lux grew serious, but stayed quiet. "You know he isn't real, Vivet, you're too smart to believe a Plant Elemental would teach me about it."

"That's why I said it in italics."

"I can't see italics in real life, Viv."

"And?"

Lux opened his mouth to speak before his voice died out. His mouth gaping, he raised his hands in a confused motion. "Whatever," he almost whispered, picking up the Cube Screen from his foot. "Let's test this thing."

Lux was just about going to toss it into the air again before Vivet yelled at him. "No! Not here, we should go upstairs." Snatching the Cube from his hands, she pounded up the stairs, folding her hands around the metal. "You shouldn't even have this, let alone play with it by the windows," she grumbled.

"And miss your pretty scared face? Not for the world." 

Vivet assumed he meant that in a smug way, but as his face flushed a little, hers followed. She turned the corner quickly and ducked into her room, shutting the door behind her, jamming Lux's foot under the door. He yelped.

"Can't I come in to look?"

Vivet gently leaned her back on the door, her heart pounding. She tapped her foot. "We aren't doing it in here. Let me grab something, and go look for a clear space on the wall near your room. Not too close."

"Gotcha Viv." She listened to the distant pitter of his shoes grow fainter. 

Another sharp pain shot through Vivet, this time her left wrist. Once he had left the door, Vivet dashed across the room, grasping her wrist until the pain had subsided. Her Cube pulsed quickly, mimicking her heartbeat. She reached into the glass dome and held the green Cube in her hands, feeling the acidic tinge of Plant Essence leeching into her fingers.

A knock on the door startled her, but she didn't drop the Cube. In fact, when she placed the Cube in the dome again, it didn't leave her fingers. She watched in horror as her fingers grew greener. 

"Vivet, you ready?"

Vivet whipped her head around to the locked door. "Maybe not!" She shot a tendril from her toe and unlatched the door, pulling it open. "Help!"

Lux looked around, confused. "Uh... With what exactly?"

Vivet groaned. "This-" she paused momentarily, thinking of what to call this mess. "- Cubey mess!"

Lux stared at her fingers. His eyes widened as he ran over, shooting a vine to shut the door and latch it. He drew the curtains closed and slid a stool over to the foot of Vivet's bed. She sat facing him, placing her hands in his as he inspected them with what could only be horror matching Vivet's, maybe worse.

He placed a hand on the Cube, his own fingers absorbing the Essence. 

"Stop that!"

He looked up suddenly, his stressed eyes blazing. "I'm not meaning to! I'm new to this, and I skipped the chapter about same power absorption!"

"Well maybe you should read it after this. Or now. It could help us with our-" 

Vivet's voice choked out as a third pain, this one more extreme, shot through her body. Gripping her temples, Vivet moaned out gibberish, slapping her head onto the bed and screaming into the blankets.

Lux bolted from the bed and returned with his spell book. "What chapter is power absorption again?" He flipped through the book, receiving many small paper cuts on the knuckles of his hands. He finally slammed the book on the bed to their right, taking Vivet's hands (and Cube) into his own. "Here we go..."

Vivet squinted her eyes, focusing on the small printed chapter. "That looks- ow, right. It looks good, start reading." 

She braced her head for another slam when Lux gripped the hand-Cube mixture with one hand, scooting closer and using his free hand to pull Vivet's head into his shoulder. "Stop it."

Vivet mumbled in reply, attempting to bite his fingers with no luck. The pages bored into her sight until her eyes blurred and went fuzzy. She looked weakly at the Cube, seeing its vein like streams of Essence glow her fingertips. The nails had begin to grow into the Cube. She tried to bring it to Lux's attention, but he only adjusted his hand higher on her head. She could feel the hair pushing through his fingers as he gently stroked her head.

After what seemed like hours, Vivet stole a glance at the curtains. Light was dimming now, and she felt herself grow weaker. Her eyelids grew heavy, and before she knew it...

"Found it!"

Lux had exclaimed so loudly, Vivet's doze had been completely eradicated. "Really?"

Lux leaned his head over Vivet's so she could only see snipets of the scene in front of her. "Yeah, well at least the Cube part." She heard his fingernails scarping against the page. "Has your heartbeat been faster than usual?"

Vivet's heartbeat froze, like it didn't skip a beat, but paused a beat. "The Cube was pulsing a bit," she whispered.

Lux's neck grew warmer under Vivet's ear. She could tell he was flushed again. "W-well that can have some effects on your Essence f-flow," he stuttered, trying to change the subject. "F-for starters, faster pulsing means less Essence flows into your bloodstream. This can result in phasing. When your body needs more Plant Essence from the cube, it can-"

Vivet's head shot up. "I'm phasing into my Cube?!" 

Lux stared at her for a second before pushing her head back down. "I can tell it hurts, just relax."

"I won't- agh- relax Lux!" Vivet fought against his tough grip. "Since when were you this strong?"

"Let me finish," he disregarded her question.

"Fine, grouchy."

"Anyways, phasing can slightly occur more and more over the deprivation of Essence. When your heartbeat is fast, your Essence is used up more quickly. Which means to open up your flow again, we'll have to score."

Vivet's eyes widened. "Y-you can't score the Cube, it could shatter."

Lux leaned onto her a little more, swallowing a huge drop of saliva. "I didn't say I would score on the Cube, Viv."


	8. Slip and Score

Vivet's eyes widened and she pulled away from Lux's shoulder, her head on fire. Closing her eyes and rubbing her temples, her mouth gaped. "You can't score me, I could die!"

Lux covered her mouth and pulled her into his shoulder again. "It's the only way to fix your Essence flow! If I had any other option, don't you think I would have told you about it by now?"

"I guess it's the only way," Vivet said reluctantly. "But keep me awake, I know how to walk you through it better than any book."

Lux shook his head in reply. "It's gonna hurt a lot, you know. This isn't any dull cut."

"I know."

Lux shrugged, cringing. "This is gonna suck, but good luck. Try not to pass out."

"Same to your queezy ass."

-

Lux had torn almost every page in the book a little bit from his frantic flipping. Vivet had tried to calm him down, but her top knuckles had completely phased into the Cube and small plants were sprouting from her nails.

Vivet was sure that she had gone deaf from Lux's screeching, but he pointed out a side effect of phasing was sense loss. Luckily, the normal sense loss rate was two senses her phasing session, so she just had to pray that she would't lose any vital sense.

"Okay then, the book says we should have everything. We have a needle, a horned vine, some numbing herbs, and most importantly, a spying stem so you can see what's going on, even if you don't lose your sight. I also adapted it with a speaker in case your tongue shrivels up and falls out, though it's highly unlikely that-"

"Lux! Stop!" Vivet had begun to lose feeling in her hands. She would bite her fingernails if she could have, and the deprivation of the process had shot her blood pressure through the tree canvasses, which wasn't a good effect.

"I'm just saying, it's possible. Just connect to the damn leaves and go flutter around the room. There's a built in micro-monitor in this berry, so eat it now before you get nauseous."

Vivet let the berry melt in her mouth for a few seconds before swallowing it. She loved the wild-berries that grew near her house, but now wasn't the time for tasting. Lux was right, her stomach was twirling like a washing machine, and her hands shook so violently she accidentally slapped the vine from the table.

Lux picked it up, placing it onto her arm. She let the thorns dig into her skin, the pain cancelling out her numbness. She at last connected to the leaves, feeling a surge of strength.

"Now remember Viv, don't get too far from your connection to your body. Don't wanna lose your Elemental form, now do we?"

Vivet's throat felt clear... wait, she couldn't feel her throat. "Lux, I can't feel my throat. I don't think I'm breathing."

Lux snickered. "You don't have one anymore. Just focus on the stomata taking in the oxygen for you so your body's cells can stay alive long enough for me to fix this."

Vivet shot the leaves off the stem, scattering and attaching them on walls and furniture so she could see all possible angles. A leaf fluttered onto Lux's head. "You mind if I keep this here for a first person view? It won't fall off."

Lux grunted a yes. Vivet tied thin but strong strands along Lux's hair and used a small tacky glucose glop to stick it down. Lux shivered, feeling the twinge of his hairs. "I'm gonna have to shower after this."

"You would have had to anyways, bee-brain. You don't wanna catch any diseases."

"Whatever! Let's just start the process. Now I'm feeling nervous!" Lux picked up a shallow bowl of pulps and natural oils, which would act as the slip. He had many sharp thorned tools next to the bowl. 

Vivet felt a twinge of panic as Lux picked up the first tool. It looked like a scalpel, but with a thorned blade. "Please be careful!"

Lux blew the hair from his face, the camera partially pulling it away from its sight and his face. "I'll try. And while you're at it, try to keep this hair out of my eyes okay?"

"Got it."

Lux looked at the spell-book, squinting at the illustrations. Vivet zoomed in onto the first picture, a Plant Elemental male cutting into a female Elemental. She looked like a Matter Elemental.

With her un-detailed figure, Vivet still saw her deep bronze hair and skin. Her clothes were spiked and plain at the same time, with her eyes wide with horror, which was... unsettling.

"Is that...?"

"Yeah, weird right? I could have sworn they were erased from society. I guess this could be a form of torture as well as a cure. At least for Matter Elementals."

"She-"

"Vivet, can you just focus?"

Vivet frowned, or she at least thought a frown. She didn't have a mouth anymore either, apparently.

Lux took the thorn and angled it to cut directly across each line of Vivet's finger knuckles. She tried to not focus on the bone threatening to curl over the skin. From the looks of it, Lux was doing the same.

Once each knuckle was exposed, he went to the wrists copying the symbols from the book. Many lines intersected, which caused Vivet to flinch each time. She didn't have the pains anymore, but she had a feeling it would get much worse.

As predicted by anyone with half a brain and a poppy seed, the lines wouldn't just stop at the wrists. Lux had carved out chunks of skin, now sealing the holes with pulp and scoring the skin around the edges. He mixed honey into the slip and stuck the leaves onto the skin. It sealed surprisingly well, unlike Vivet's original hand wound.

"We're gonna need a lot of sawdust and birch sap after this."

"Agreed. But we can gather some once your arms have healed. The head, however, might take a bit longer."

"H-hold on a second," Vivet stuttered, stilling her leaf and swapping to one closer to her arms. "You never mentioned anything about my head."

"I don't mention a lot about this process to anyone, Viv, it's super creepy."

"Hmph."

Lux went back to work, filling in the swirls and symbols with plain honey, which immediately hardened into amber, oddly enough, and glowed green. The sweet smell of a flower filled the air, and Vivet saw a deep purple flower appear in her head. Like a mirage, it swelled and gave off a strange purple smoke. The scent filled her lungs, and unable to cough, she choked on the air.

Lux heard her coughing. "What's the noise about?"

"Lux-cough- look up a deep purple flower in the book. Now-hack-."

Lux placed the scalpel on the page to bookmark it and flipped to the flower section. "Does it give off smoke?"

"Yeah, that one. It's a deep purple flower, smelling very sweet. Almost like a mango."

Lux licked his fingers and flipped the page. "Here we go. It's something called Sparkenflug. Hm, never heard of it."

"Keep reading!"

"Jeez, relax." Lux cleared his throat. "It says here, "A deep purple flower with removable petals that you roll into little pipes. You light those pipes to give off a deep purple smoke that is deadly to any non 'nix' users unless they are protected with circle of marigold salt."

"What does 'nix' mean? And what is 'marigold salt' or whatever it's called? I haven't heard that salt can be harvested from flowers."

"I... have no idea." Lux froze, halfway turning the page. "Why do you ask about the flower anyways?"

"Sparkenflug, huh?" Vivet muttered to herself. "Oh! No reason!" She felt the leaves brighten in color, the chloroplasts' way of blushing (I didn't know leaves have feelings until I wrote this book either, don't worry about it).

Lux scratched his chin. "Whatever." He flipped back to the correct page and read the next step out-loud. "'Once the amber has glowed the appropriate color, proceed to carve the three Elemental symbols of Enchantment.' God, such a fancy name."

"What are the symbols and how far are they going into my head?"

"Not too deep," Lux said, absorbed in the descriptions. "The first one is for recovery, which looks like a flower with a star inside. Simple enough, doesn't take too much experience to carve that, don't you think?"

"Yeah easy enough." Vivet shifted her leaf view so she could read the page. "Let's see... the next symbol is a flame over the earth. Seems easy. And it stands for... power. Well of course, one symbol must recover most of out powers alone."

"And the last is two moons rubbing against each other with sparks falling. Interesting, I guess?" Lux skimmed his finger across the text by the picture of the moons. "It says it was referenced off of ancient text. There was supposedly an event called the Shower of Sparks where two moons created new creatures called Moon Nymphs. God, the details in this must be correct or the moons' original meaning of heart could mean violence."

"That's a mistake you won't wanna make, in case I like... kill you in your sleep because of it."

"That was morbid, but precisely." Lux picked up the scalpel again and leaned over Vivet's face. He glanced at the book quickly and began carving the first symbol into her left cheek. "Try not to smile, I don't wanna mess up," Lux whispered, carving the first curve of the petals.

"Hard to smile when I'm contemplating my own death, but yeah, I won't."

-

Lux had spent a good chunk of the final light carving the first two symbols. The flower and star was easy like they had thought, and the amber had just turned green when Lux launched himself into the second. He carved the earth first, then professionally curved the flames. Vivet could almost see the flames dancing on the earth, boiling the water and turning the land brown. But there was no color, so she ignored her Plant imagination.

Once the second green glow had appeared, Lux paused, wiping his forehead with his wrist. Vivet shot the leaf from his hair to cover the blade as it scraped across Lux's forehead.

"Careful, thornlord, I need someone to get me back in my body instead of dying with me."

"Thornlord," Lux chucked tiredly. The moon was high in the sky now, and they had opened the windows for slight light. The tint would keep any outside watchers from peering in. "Is that new?"

"Maybe it is. I didn't think you payed attention to my nicknames."

"You're dumb pet-names are hard to ignore."

Now pet-names was a stretch. The leaves grew greener for a moment before fading back to normal. She hoped Lux didn't understand about leaves getting flustered, but knowing him, anything was possible.

-

Once the last symbol had been carved, and the amber had changed its hue, Lux created the sawdust mix, painting over the ruins of the Amber. "You should be fine to come back into your body now," Lux shouted from the kitchen, where he was soaking the bowls in the sink.

Vivet took a few deep breaths, doing as the book said. She felt her connection to the leaves fade as she flexed her fingers, feeling the numbness subside.

She opened her eyes, lifting an arm to see the drying sawdust "paint". She now looked normal, and she felt better than she had before.

"Now, you're going to need to rest for a while to regain your strength. Or at least until that amber fully hardens." Lux had walked back into the room and leaned against the wall.

Vivet grabbed some soft woven bandages. "Can't I just walk around the house with these on?"

Lux was quiet for a minute. "I guess, as long as you don't overwork yourself," Lux pondered. "Just promise me you'll be careful. I have to go out at dawn to gather some more night-lock. I don't feel like it's doing its job well enough..."

-

The sun had fully risen from the horizon. Vivet had been making night-vision and shine potions after Lux had gone out. The lingering smell of pulpy herbs and sawdust lingered in the air.

Vivet had tried to shoot the air from fruits and flowers into the air to clear it, and it had worked, until her hand cramped up. Remembering she couldn't overexert herself, she strung some woven bags of ground up pomegranate to scent the air. 

The shine potion was the first done. Vivet took a few drops in a small wooden dropped and squeezed it into a small plant by the window. She let it soak into the soil before the glow began. The leaves grew brighter and brighter until Vivet had to shield her eyes. She put the plant in a small cupboard near the ceiling to die down.

Once the night vision potion had started to brew, Vivet sat, thinking about the night before. It had only been hours since she had been cut into and marked. She didn't know what she would have done in her body. She didn't want to think about it.

The air grew thicker, signaling the over-boil of the potion. Vivet ran over, waving thin blue smoke from her face and pinching her nose. The potion had turned brown now, boiling so hot that it eventually evaporated, leaving behind powder.

The smoke made Vivet think of the Sparkenflug. She was still confused by the strange, valuable herb. But she knew that the spell-book was never wrong, as an Elemental was never out of place.

But then again, that wasn't entirely true, was it?


	9. We Need To Talk

Once she had cleared the smoke from the room, Vivet stared at her arms, the fading bruises of false skin burning the slip and score process into her memory.

The skin has begun to burn, and remembering her vampirism, she slipped her arms behind her, away from the sunlight. She couldn't afford to ruin the carvings. She was far too weak to defend herself from the possible punishments, especially without Lux in the room.

Vivet's mind wandered onto lesser things, like what Lux would gather as he was out, or how the pendant would turn out once the shells were turned to stained glass. Vivet took the almost finished claw out and smoothed the hot glass down, barely feeling a burn.

With shards of shells surrounded by small glass orbs, the beaded glass took on many gradients of the shells. Blue and red swirling and manipulating itself to radiant stripes of lavender and violent.

With her thumbprint now embedded and... burned off... into the glass, Vivet rubbed her thumb on her pointer finger, feeling the quickly growing thumbprint. The smooth skin reminded her of the flower she wanted to research.

Throwing the nearby hidden spell-book onto her knees and bunching her muscles up, she flipped through the pages carefully. She didn't want to rip any pages, she might find them handy. "You can't be too careful when it comes to sharing your life," she murmured to herself.

-

It was late afternoon when Lux came back. He stumbled in quietly, bunches of night-lock thorns in his hands. Vivet barely noticed him at first, only to hear a small yelp as he pulled out the thorns. She had dropped her shine potion, shattering the glass. Luckily, the base was cornflour, so she could easily will it to clump, adding more water later.

"You can't just sneak in!" Vivet had yelled at Lux for the sixth time about his sneaky entrance.

"I had to pull out the stupid thorns first! Those dumb night-lock roots really are sharp!" He winced, pulling a thorn from under his nail with his teeth. He spat it into a bowl on the table.

"Well you could have announced your entrance."

"Mmmhmm." Lux mumbled as he picked thorns from his teeth. His tongue was red now, and blood trickled down his chin.

Vivet let out a heavy sigh and mopped up the blood around the house and on Lux's face with some spare leaves. "Did you get what you were looking for?"

Lux wiped his hands on his shirt before replying. "Originally I went out to find some of that weird plant you wanted, but as I was looking I found some multicolored berries. I looked them up in the spell-book and-"

"Did you find any?"

"Any what?"

"The flower I wanted."

"Oh, the Sparkenflug? Yeah, there's some right here-"

Vivet's hands shot to the table where Lux had stashed some of the purple flower. "Yes! Great job Lux! Where did you even find this?"

Lux stared at her, which Vivet noticed from her peripheral vision as she admired the flower. "You're eyes are like stars," he snickered. "It wasn't too hard. I went down to the lake where the last of the stars shone on the surface. It was really pretty by the way, you should come with me next time."

"Lux, focus!"

Lux pulled the closest chair out and sat. "Right, sorry. Anyways, Slyvia ran over, and started the sunlight out of me, may I add. She told me that she had found an odd herb in the marshy lake grass. She wanted me to give it to you, and I asked her the description. She did, and I knew it was what you wanted."

Vivet took a deep breath before Lux interrupted her.

"Don't worry, she hasn't noticed the power swap. But just to be safe, I used a Mind Mushroom to make her think it was Clara who she saw."

Vivet sank lower into her chair, carefully placing the Sparkenflug onto the table and her head into her hands. "We have to move."

"What?" Lux had straightened up, his eyes wide, furling his eyebrows. A tired glow around his eyes brought out the fear of his thoughts. "We can't leave, the house is here. All of our things-"

"We'll take it all with us!" Vivet through her arms out in a gesture of frustration. "There are plenty of spells to enchant the house into a bag. We don't even have to pack!" A small fit of scared, hysterical laughter shot across her face.

Lux's eyes grew sad and afraid. "Vivet, that's a big move. I know we said we would hide out, but as long as no one comes by and sees us-"

"We can't take any chances! God, Lux, you would think someone like you would have had thoughts like this before! It's time for the next step." Vivet paused, calming herself down and growing quieter. "We have to leave if we want to stay alive."

Lux looked at her and she looked into his sad eyes. "Where would we go?"

"There's a mountain no one wants to cross a few hundred meters North. If we make it over that, we can find a new place to live."

"Vivet, it's more than just leaving. We would have to find a new forest, with a lake and a store of herbs, there's more than a location."

"We'll make it work!" Vivet was yelling now, desperation clouding her thoughts. "We have to go, before you get found by the Light Committee!"

Lux scooted his chair next to Vivet's laying a hand on her shoulder. "The Light Committee can't find me, they think my Cube is shattered."

Vivet pushed his hand away. "How would you know that?"

"I left a decoy out and smashed it with a hammer. They think my essence is gone, my blood spilled. I'm presumed dead, Vivet, what dangers could there be here?"

"Surely they must know about your plant interest! They monitor you guys twenty-four seven!"

"I-" Lux froze, panic on his face. "I can't bring myself to forget this place, can't make myself leave even on the brink of my Cube being shattered." His voice shook now as his eyes bored into Vivet's mind. Like a dagger, they stung, and she couldn't face him anymore.

Vivet stood, grabbing a large fluffy leaf and wringing it between her hands. Small shreds of fluff scattered around made the ground look dotted in pollen. "We have no choice."

Lux nodded weakly. "I know. Go grab the spell-book. And my bag."

Vivet quickly nodded back and ran up the toadstool steps, glancing out every window and covering them with leaves. She grabbed the spell-book and stuffed it inside Lux's bag. Slinging it over her shoulder, she thought back to a lonely blue snail.

"Cochlea!" Vivet yelled out the balcony window. Summoning vines, she grappled down the side of the trunk, calling for the small snail in every hole she found. Near the middle, her calls were answered.

"Vivet?" Cochlea squirmed out from her hiding place scanning the skies for birds.

"No time to explain," Vivet breathed, picking up the small creature and slamming into the ground, running through the front door. "Here!" She thrust the bag at Lux, hitting him in the gut.

"Hey Cochlea," Lux coughed, breathing heavily.

"Someone please explain what's going on!" Cochlea's little beady eyes were wide and her small feet tapped Vivet's hand impatiently.

"We have to move. It's too risky to stay and expose Lux's Power Swap. The Light Committee could be at our door at any time." Vivet sat down, motioning for Lux to enchant the bag. "I'm sorry we haven't told you anything about it."

"No, it's really okay. I get it," Cochlea said sadly. "But you have to let me stay on the house."

"What?" Vivet stared down at her. "That's so dangerous, Cochlea, I can't allow-"

"For the good of snailkind, I have to stay and protect the others living there!"

Vivet gasped. "There are more?"

Cochlea snickered. "Did you think I lived alone? I would die without the others."

"Well as soon as we finish the move, I want to speak to them all."

"That isn't such a good idea, Vivet," Lux broke in. "Snails have a certain defense mechanism that can seriously harm Elementals."

"Well Cochlea will have to get them to behave, seeing as she controlled herself when we first met!" Vivet snapped at Lux, nearly crushing Cochlea in her other hand. "Just get that bag enchanted and let's get out of here already!"

-

"Just a drop more..." Lux had nearly finished the elixir they needed to enchant the bag. Only a drop more of honey needed to be added to the numerous herbs and special rune enchantments.

A dark plume of green glitter shot up out of cauldron they were brewing the liquid in. Clovers and swirls bubbled off the surface of the elixir, scenting the room like grass. It was refreshing, but no one could feel relaxed.

"Done?"

"Yep." Lux drenched the bag in the liquid and smoothed the material down. "Vivet, you might be better off wrapping your Cube up and putting it somewhere safer."

"Good idea," Vivet nodded to him. "Can you do that now? I want to take Cochlea outside."

Lux nodded and bolted up the toadstool steps. Once his footprints had faded from the surface of the toadstools, Vivet scooped the tiny snail from her resting place and carefully made her way outside.

"You don't have anything to worry about Vivet," Cochlea assured her as Vivet placed her in a hole in the tree-trunk. "Turbulence doesn't effect me too much."

Vivet's heart swelled at the small shelled animal's bravery. "I know, but you mean too much to me. Who else is gonna console me?"

"I'm not going anywhere. I'll be right on Lux's back the whole trip. Even if he drops the bag, the house won't move an inch."

Vivet pushed her through the hole. "I know. Goodbye." She didn't wait for a reply before running back into the house.

Lux was seated at the table, picking at the wrap of Vivet's Cube. "Here, you might want to grab a small bag yourself."

Vivet nodded. "Can you open to the protection enchantment chapter?" Swiping a bag from the counter, Vivet loaded it with cotton and soft tansy leaves. When she placed her Cube inside, she turned back to Lux. "Read me the steps."

Lux licked his finger and thumb, turning the page over. "This is for the Cube transportation spell, right?"

"Yep."

He looked again at the page, doubling back over each word. "Three teaspoons of honey need to be rubbed over the cotton."

"The cotton on the Cube or in the bag?"

"Both."

"Got it." Vivet rubbed the cotton until it was soaked and her fingers were coated in fuzz and honey. "What's next?"

Lux traced the text with his forefinger. "A dab of Vaseline."

Vivet smeared the outside lining with the Vaseline and dusted pollen on. "Read me the incantation please?"

Lux pushed the book over. "I don't wanna mess it up."

Vivet nodded. She began to read the smudged text, yet she could pick out each letter clearly. "Cum cera tutela huic pollen et ego rogabo loco superiore Elementals custodire et benedicat mihi cubum tutum peregrinatione ad ea excludi promittant mihi. Peto te, misereatur maiorum, qui defendat nos, et noli me iter caute."

Lux sprinkled rosemary and sage dust over Vivet's head, motioning for her to close her eyes. She obeyed, letting him finish the incantation. "Benedico Elemental hanc curam anime vitam tueri iurando."

Vivet opened her eyes and watched the magical spell seal the bag airtight. A small blue orb appeared around the bag, acting as a shield.

"It's only temporary," Lux mumbled. "We should go now."

Vivet slung the bag over her shoulder, glancing around the kitchen. She tied the cabinets and doors closed with palms. "You ready?"

Lux shoved the spell-book into his bag and made sure his Cube was ready. He had performed the incantation while Vivet was outside, from the looks of it. "Of course. Now let's suck the house into here."

-

With a quick spell, the house worm holed around them into Lux's bag. They were now standing in the forest, moonlight streaming through the trees. Packing had taken all day.

Vivet turned to Lux, edging the bag farther onto her shoulder. The moon shone brightly on the two of them. "We have to head North."

Lux nodded. "Got it."

The two Elementals set off, Cubes wrapped carefully. Their minds were swarming with fears and worries of what would come next. But not even the highest of Elementals could have not had those thoughts.

So with the moon shining their path ahead, and the lapping waves of the lake behind them, the Plant Elementals walked onto their new life, a life unpredictable and scary.


	10. Over The River And Through The Woods

"Hurry up Lux, we don't have all day!"

Vivet and Lux had walked through the forest all night. The sun had just risen when the trees thinned and the forest became less dense.

"Remember, I have the house on my back! This isn't too easy for me, All you have is your Cube!" Lux pushed through the last of the branches, avoiding the thorns. He shot out a few vines and tied the twigs back before snapping them shut again.

"And my Cube is less valuable than our house?" Vivet walked slower to let Lux catch up. Once his stride matched hers, she quickened her pace. "Come on, uphill will be the harder part. We have to cross the river and scale the mountain to get on the plateau. From there we can decide where to go."

 

Lux nodded, his common (and very overused,may I add) action. "You sure you know where to go? And that no one will know how to track us?"

"Once we cross the river, we'll be practically untraceable." Vivet shouldered her bag, swapping shoulders and eventually tying a reed around the other side to create more of a backpack feel. 

The distance grew longer as they walked, the sun beating down on them. The river rapids grew louder and the air grew thicker. 

The two walked across the short distance of the damp grasses, stomping down wildflowers and flinching as the flowers were crushed. The slippery outlines of the river stones now became detailed rocks. They watched the water slide over them, harsh and seemingly impossible to tame.

"I do wonder how Water Elementals cope with the rapids," Lux said thoughtfully. "It doesn't look like the rushing waters can be tamed easily."

"Well you know how Water Elementals are, they always seek out a challenge." Vivet snorted. "Maybe they could be more productive if they stopped biting off more than they can chew. Ironically, the Water Elementals drown more easily than any others, even the heavy Earth Elementals."

"Really? That is unfortunate..." Lux rubbed his hands together and loudly cleared his throat. "Right, let's cross."

Vivet shouldered her bag slightly in agreement. She started forward, shooting vines into the river and latching them under rocks to steady herself. She looked up to Lux floating above her, holding a balloon-like leaf ball keeping him above the water. "Careful the wind doesn't blow you off course, airboy!"

Lux snorted slightly. "I got this! Make sure you don't drown yourself in the water, kelphead!"

Vivet gave an exaggerated gasp. "Don't nickname me back!"

"I do what I want! I am- WOAH GOD." Lux didn't finish his sentence. His bag fell onto the grass on the other side of the river. Vivet looked up to see him blow in many different directions at once, which seemed unnatural for wind.

Vivet's eyes widened. She realized what the wind was doing. She was about to call out for Lux until her vine shot up from the water. It sensed her panic. She stumbled on the slippery rocks and her feet launched into the air. 

Lux noticed her slipping and let go of his leaves, now free to move wherever he pleased. Scooping Vivet into a net of vines, he placed her on the other side of the river. "You okay? You stumbled pretty bad there." 

Vivet leaped up, grabbing Lux's wrist and rifling through her bag. She pulled out a small blue leaf and tore it in half. Sparks shot out of the torn edges. She gave half the leaf to Lux. "Eat this. Now, hurry before it's too late."

Lux glanced at her sideways as she ate the leaf, her eyes wide in panic. "Are you feeling okay, Vivet? I've never seen this herb before-"

"Eat the leaf, Lux!"

Lux threw the leaf into his mouth. "Okay! Jeez, this hurts my teeth," Lux mumbled as he chewed.

"Then don't chew it! Now hurry, eat this blackberry. It will activate the cloaking."

"What is this-"

"Peacock begonia, Lux! Now eat the blackberry!"

Lux obeyed. "Why are you so panicked?" He looked at his hand and yelped. "I'm going invisible!"

Vivet rolled her eyes, not watching herself fade. "Yes, you are. But we can still faintly see each other since we share Elemental essence. But they can't."

"Who is they?"

Vivet looked at the river and into the sky. She watched the last of the leaf ball fade into the clouds. "The wind doesn't naturally whip water like it does here. It doesn't toss leaves back and forth. There's someone here, and by the looks of it, they've been here longer than we have."

"Who is it?"

"A Wind Elemental."

Lux shot up, glancing into the forest. "What?" His eyes were wide now, and he frantically pulled his bag back on. "We have to go now! Let's hurry up and get over the mountain!"

Vivet tightened her grip around his wrist. "Calm down, they can't see us. Judging by the power of the wind, I'd say she's quite young."

Lux looked up, tensing. "It's a she? Well now we have to get going before-"

"She's young. She's still learning to control her powers. Wind Elementals love messing around with other Elementals if they can, just don't overthink it." She released his wrist and looked up softly into his eyes. They were still wide with fear. "We have a while left on the cloak. Once we make it to the top of the mountain, we should be safe."

Lux took a deep breath, closing his eyes. "Okay, I trust you."

"Thank you. Now come on," Vivet said softly, grabbing his wrist and pulling him up. "They can still hear us. Now come on, we can't see each other well so make sure you stick close to me."

Lux silently twisted his arm from her grasp and locked fingers with her. "Where to?" He whispered.

She was glad Lux couldn't see her face. Her skin was hot, hopefully not on her hands. If Lux noticed, he didn't show it. "Let's head Northwest."

Vivet led Lux a few meters until he adapted to her pace and walked beside her. She tried not to pull him anywhere while avoiding rocks and holes. She didn't want to let go of his hand.

For safety, of course.

Is it really just for safety, though?

Of course it is, me, what else would it be for? Vivet's thoughts froze. Don't answer that.

-

The tip of the mountain grew clearer as they walked steadily uphill. Still hand in hand, Vivet was sure she was imagining the scent of african violet. Lux's hands were stiffer now, so she suspected he smelled it too (I'll explain at the end).

Once the ground had flattened out, the two stood on a slant, overlooking the land they had tracked through. The sun was setting now, and they were still barely visible. A faint glow around the two of them had appeared after Vivet crushed up a cave mushroom.

"No one can see the glow but us, don't worry." Vivet noticed his fear as the moon rose. 

Lux looked at her and sighed. "Even your eyes are glowing."

Vivet smirked. "An odd thing to notice, don't you think? But now that you mention it, yours are too," she teased.

Lux looked away, pulling her along the flat area. They dodged a few bushes and trees in their way. Vivet stored some wild garlic and fennel in her bag with her Cube.

Lux watched her in confusion. "What's up with the garlic?"

"We won't drown. And before you ask, the fennel is for love potions. Hey, we might need them," Vivet added to his questioning look.

"Whatever. Look, there's some chamomile and basil growing over here. That can be useful for the next time you get a spell cast on you."

"Ha ha, very funny. But get the basil. I'm gonna look for some roses over here." Vivet let go of his hand for the first time that afternoon. Her fingers felt cold, and even the flowers on her dress seemed to droop. Stop that, you're embarrassing me.

Vivet stashed some roses in her bag and rubbed one between her fingers. The oil spread over her fingerprint slowly. She really needed the courage.

I'm debating on taking some rosemary to clear my mind.

And why are you debating it, Vivet?

You know why. You read the spell-book. It's not worth it.

And why isn't it worth it? Just clear your mind and ignore the side effect.

The side effect isn't worth it! I won't do that to him, or myself!

It was like her angel and devil on her shoulders were arguing. And so far, the devil was winning.

The side effect isn't that bad. Just a little-

"Stop it!" Vivet covered her mouth. Had she said that out loud?

"What was that?" Lux called from the distance. "Can you repeat-"

"Nothing!" She called back. Shush you two. Vivet almost laughed. Was she really scolding imaginary voices in her head?

She walked briskly back to the rock where she and Lux had split up. A faint glow a few trees away told her he was still gathering. She sat, leaning back and staring up at the moon. Her hair spilled over the back of the rock, tangling itself in the grass.

Vivet stared at the moon, barely blinking. She felt the flowers on her dress reach out to it. It seemed like just yesterday she had been at the lake with her friends, dancing on the surface of the water and laughing with them. Now she was alone with Lux, on the run from the Light Committee.

No matter how long Lux believed they weren't after him, she knew how they were. They wouldn't stop until they were sure he was dead.

Now, Vivet had thought of this the first day Lux had moved in. So in fear, she had gotten up in the middle of the night when Lux slept and created a fake Cube. She had kept it so far from her so she wouldn't Power Swap herself. If Lux found out, well Vivet wasn't sure what he would do.

She had shattered that Cube in the forest before getting Cochlea that night before they left. She knew it was the only way to keep the both of them safe. 

But I can never tell Lux that. He must never know.

Why would it be such a bad thing?

Vivet pondered this for a moment. If he did know, it could change his view of her, and she could lose him for good. But then again, if she did tell him, there wouldn't be anything to feel guilty about.

Lux came back to the rock before she could make a decision.

"You ready?" Lux pulled her up from the rock and dusted some dirt from her hair.

"I can clean my own hair, you know."

"I know."

"You know?"

"Mmhmm."

Vivet avoided his eyes and grabbed his hand, locking their fingers together and trying not to smile giddily.

I wouldn't call it giddy, Vivet.

Hush. It was no more than a smirk.

Sure. You tell yourself that.

She cleared her throat. "Let's keep moving. We can stop to sleep at midnight." 

-

The moon had risen farther than above by the time they had decided to stop. The two had made it half way down the mountain when they found a particularly odd tall patch of trees. They had strung up vine hammocks and had settled down in the pines.

An owl flew into the tree next to them. They had only shared a tree for fear that one of them would fall out and shatter their Cube. So they had latched the hammocks opposite from each other on the tree trunk.

Vivet stared up at the moon again. Silence between the two- though neither of them were tired- split the wooded air like a sharp thorn. Lux, seemingly lost in thought, was half hanging off his hammock. Vivet was sure he would fall any moment.

She glanced at his bag tied above them, imagining what Cochlea and her snail family were seeing. Had they felt any movement since the start of the trip? Had they heard or seen Lux and Vivet? The capabilities of the enchanted bag were unimaginable. 

"Hey Vivet?"

The voice startled her so much she almost fell from her hammock. "Yes?" she croaked out.

Lux, most likely seeing her stumble, laughed. "How long do you think we have before we find somewhere safe?"

Vivet thought for a moment. "Maybe a few more nights."

"And what's the ideal place for us?"

"I'm not sure. Maybe instead of a forest this time we could find a waterfall to hide behind." Lux snorted at this statement. "Don't laugh, it could be fun. Nice and relaxing."

Lux propped himself up on his hammock and faced Vivet. She copied him. "Don't act like all you want is silence. You aren't a Water Elemental."

"Silence could be nice for a change. Just the two of us, with as many herbs as we could ever want! No one to disturb us, no one to find us out..."

"Sounds nice."

Vivet smiled softly. "It really does."

Lux replied with a toothy grin.


	11. What's The Matter?

The sun was fully risen in the sky by the time Vivet awoke. She blinked the sleep from her eyes and stared up at the sky, her eyes burning.

Her brain finally understood what she was doing and she shut her eyes, trying to calm the burning in her eyes.

When she opened them again, Vivet looked at Lux, who was gone from his hammock. From the looks of it, he hadn't rolled out of it in his sleep, so she assumed he was out looking for herbs.

Vivet rolled into the pine needles, stringing herself to the tree as she unlatched the hammocks and let them disintegrate into the tree. Making her way to the forest floor, Vivet slipped on her shoes and followed the subtle footprints Lux left behind.\

She emerged at the end of the forest, with the sun brightly over head. A small river flowed ahead, where she finally spotted Lux sitting on a large rock picking at mosses.

"How interesting can moss be?"

Lux didn't look up. "I'm trying to get under it, but it keeps growing back. It must be magic moss or some weird fungus." He picked at the moss again, flinching as it latched onto his finger.

Vivet walked up to the rock and rubbed the moss from his finger. She scooped some water into a leaf and washed her hands, motioning for Lux to do the same. "It's weird. We should get going."

"Yeah, I'm not liking this moss's growing rate," Lux said uncomfortably, rubbing his hands together in a cringing motion.

The two set off down the remainder of the mountain, hopping over creeks and giant logs. Vivet bounced across some stepping stones and, in the attempt to look graceful, fell straight into the water.

From the bottom of the creek, the sunlight barely streamed. Her hair floated around her and she let out air bubbles, trying not to laugh. Lux's distinct cackling could be heard from the above muffled air.

Suddenly, Vivet felt a disturbance in the water. The currents shifted slightly, but too quickly to be natural. She knew at once what was happening.

Leaping up from the water like a dolphin, Vivet gasped for air before pulling Lux down under the surface with her. He struggled in her grasp until she shoved kelp onto his mouth and willed him to breathe.

"What the heck was that for?" Lux panted, inhaling he bubbles of oxygen coming from my kelp.

"Look at the water," Vivet pointed, sinking as far down as the creek would allow. The bottom was far enough down that they wouldn't be spotted, but someone was defiantly up there. "Wind Elemental."

Lux groaned. "But I thought we ditched them on the other side of the mountain!"

"Well the only other option is a Matter Elemental, and last time I checked, they're extinct. So yes, it's a Wind Elemental for sure-"

Vivet felt her body go numb, the flowers on her dress freeze and shoot toward the surface. Her entire body gave a huge jolt and she was shot out of the water. Opening her eyes and snapping her head around her, she observed that she was a few feet above the surface.

"What the-"

Her words were cut off by another yelp as Lux was shot up and stopped beside her. They both sat, brushing their wet hair from their faces. A low voice began to laugh.

"I never thought I'd see Plant Elementals hiding in the water like fish. I didn't know you had swapped."

"Oh, shove off," Vivet shouted, her eyes still squinting water out, "Go back to the other side of the mountain and practice on the trees!"

"But of course, Planty, I could never do that. The trees are too tall for my material reach."

"My name is- HOLY HORSETAIL!" She had finally cleared her eyes of water and was now staring in the girl's face.

"Vivet relaaaaAAAAHHHH!" Lux now began to start yelling too, as he layed his eyes upon their kidnapper.

Vivet squinted at her, observing as much as she could. She knew it would be soon that she would be disassembled and restructured.

The girl had long silver hair, with tan skin and grey eyes. Her outfit consisted of a small t-shirt and shorts combo, with a slip on pair of silver holographic slides to top it all off. A holographic twinkle in the girl's eyes indicated her status, a Matter Elemental.

"What's the matter, Planties?" The girl cocked her head, a mocking grin on her face. "Never read a spellbound before?"

"Of course we have," Lux challenged, "It's not every day you see a species presumed dead and hunted down."

"I could say the same about you."

Lux flowed with anger, the one trait that stuck with him after his Power Swap.

"From the looks of it," the girl continued, "You weren't originally a Planty, were you?" She looked at his face and clicked her tongue. "Ah, a Light Elemental."

Vivet tried to hide her stunned expression. "How do you-"

"I know everything, darling. Speaking of which, I should find out your names-"

"Vivet, and that's Lux. Now can you put us down?"

The girl snickered. "She's a feisty one, huh?" She said to Lux. He struggled in response. "Anyways, I should introduce myself too, although it isn't just a standard Latin translation."

"So that's the language," Lux whispered.

She ignored Lux. "My name is Celena. And I take it you want to..." She trailed off as she put the pair down.

"What are you waiting for," Vivet jeered, "Just dissemble us while you can!" Lux growled quietly behind her.

"Oh you thick playthings, that's just an old folktale. Although I do have the power to, I will spare you, on one condition."

Vivet rolled her eyes. "Okay whatever, what's the condition?

Celena sat on a rock, inspecting her fingernails. "You take me wherever you're going." She ignored Vivet's moan and turned her gaze back to Lux. "You won't mind that, will you-"

Celena's words were stopped as Vivet grabbed the front of her collared shirt and yanked her forwards, their foreheads almost touching. "We can't do that. You see, we have a certain-"

"Vivet, will you stop defending yourself for one minute and listen?" Lux stared her in the eyes, throwing his hands out in front of him in a gesture of frustration. "She's not gonna do anything bag to us, okay?"

"Yeah, clover head, if I was going to kill you, I would have twisted your insides and snapped your bones by now."

Vivet crossed her arms and thrust Celena back. "What a refreshing image."

"So can I come with you or not? I kind of have a lot to do today."

Vivet sat as still as possible, feeling the trees sway beneath her. She harnessed the power of the nearby branches and closed her eyes. Summoning all of the leaves and twigs to follow her command, she took a deep breath and opened her eyes. "No."

At once, Celena was wrapped in branches. She was still, and wasn't struggling. She stared Vivet in the eyes and a leaf behind Vivet contorted in so many confusing ways it looked as if it were folding itself. 

Vivet grabbed Lux's wrist and summoned a leaf mask over Celena's eyes. The leaf lay still again. Vivet tied some vines around it (shot from her wrist) and silently whispered, "Run."

 

"What-"

Vivet started to fall out of the sky. She felt herself loosen her grip on Lux before she dragged him under the water. She stuffed a wad of kelp in his face and motioned for him to tie it on.

"We need to swim upstream, but keep close to the floor."

"Why-"

"Just trust me," Vivet whispered, pulling him along and avoiding the sharp rocks. She heard Celena finally start to struggle, and Vivet summoned a tree root to gag her. When she finally heard choking, she swam faster.

-

The sun had begin to fade when Vivet finally let go of all of the plants. Without saying a word to Lux, she sighed and summoned a spying vine to make sure Celena wouldn't follow them. The water currents had shifted, giving them more speed.

Once she knew Celena wouldn't follow, she motioned for Lux to duck into a nearby hole, which she assumed opened into an underwater cave. She swam in after him and rolled a chunk of dirt over the hole, tying the inside with vines to hold it shut.

She looked around quickly, spying Lux in a far corner. There was a pocket of air there, where he had taken out a glowing mushroom and tossed it into the corner Vivet was in. She sighed, summoning her own light source and sticking it in the ground. She summoned a sea sponge, which took most of her efforts, and sucked up the water, leaving dirt and dust flying through the air.

Vivet pulled off the kelp wrapped on her mouth and sighed, fresh air seeping into her lungs. She tried to get the taste of kelp from her tongue, eventually giving up and walking to Lux, who had done the same.

"Now will you explain why we're in a dirty cave underwater, running from a harmless-"

"She wasn't harmless, she-"

"Will you please stop interrupting me!" Lux's shout shook the whole room, and he ignored Vivet's gesture to stay quiet.

"Fine," Vivet hissed, "Believe that's she's innocent. But I doubt you saw the rune on her necklace."

Lux froze, dropping to a silent panic. "Please don't tell me it was..."

"Yep, the mark of Karfro, I'm sure of it."

"How can you be sure-"

"I traced the lines in my head and could hear her voice, the normal side effect of seeing the mark! Karfro made it very certain that we would notice each line on her stupid mark, so we can't trust a seemingly extinct elemental who sides with her." Vivet sat on a stump of packed down dirt. "We have to go farther than our vantage point, to avoid possible discovery. I say we take a teleportation seed and instead of continuing North, we head Northwest a few thousand miles."

"But by that rate, we'll be half way back to where we started!"

"Exactly."

Lux sat down next to her and put his head in his hands. "How much longer is this trip going to take? I just want to sit back in our new home and relax."

Vivet placed a hand on his shoulder. "I know you do. And so do I, but until we can distance ourselves from any other Elementals, we have to keep going."

Lux nodded his head. "I know."

Vivet stood up from her little dirt stoop and brushed the dust from her dress. "We should get going, before Celena finds us. Besides, the flowers on my dress are wilting. We can't stay underwater without sunlight for too long."

The two got up and using a vine Vivet had shaped into a point and a curve, they hollowed out a tunnel to the surface, keeping as low as possible until they could no longer see the other side they came from. Lux shot a vines full of dirt and packed their entrance tightly, so there was no trace of their escape. Vivet used a tube of flower stem and filled the room with water again.

-

The sky was shades of pink and purple by the time they had found their way out of the forest. They had discovered, upon tunneling out of the dirt, that they had went straight through another plateau on the opposite side of the mountain. Luckily, there were Wind Elementals on the top to hopefully keep Celena out.

As they walked, Vivet popped a leaf of acacia in her mouth. They would need all the protection they could get. 

The moon had risen a bit over the horizon when Lux finally spoke. "Do you think we should eat another leaf of peacock begonia?"

Vivet nodded, her hand already thrust into her bag. She pulled out two leaves and a few blackberries to activate the cloaking. 

Lux ate the herbs quickly this time, seeing as he had already done it once, and he knew what he was getting into. 

"Here, put this in your pocket." Vivet handed Lux a leaf of calamus, closing it into his hand.

Lux raised his hand to his nose to smell the leaf, before Vivet slapped it away. "Don't smell that, it's poision! The farther from your mouth, the better!"

Lux, wide eyed and hair on end, shoved the leaf in his pocket and rubbed his hands on his shirt. 

"Here, eat this. It's crampbark. It will calm you down, seeing as you look like an earthquake." 

Lux ate the strange herb and glanced over his shoulder at the rising moon. Vivet looked away from him, and her eyes fell on a strange bundle of herbs on the forest floor. "This could make a nice smudging stick," she said aloud.

"What's smudging?" Lux asked, stopping at a tree to pick off a few berries.

"You smoke herbs to cleanse an area or a body- don't eat that, those are crampbark berries."

"Didn't I just eat crambark?"

"You didn't eat the berries, now did you? They're toxic." Vivet picked up the bundle of strange herbs, inspecting it further. 

"Forget-me-nots," she whispered. They were rare for the climate they were in, and she had only ever seen them in another Plant Elemental's herb stock, after their voyage to- well, she wasn't quite sure where. They were always quiet about it.

She felt Lux hovering over her shoulder. "What's so good about those? Don't they just cause memory regain and love effects?"

At the word she blushed, glad she was barely visible. "You never know who we need to interrogate, or who will wipe our memories. It's always handy. Besides, I can feel the herbs in our house wilting. We need to restock."

Lux nodded, taking the bunch from her and shoving it into his bag. "Let's just hope the bunch doesn't crush the house."

"It shrinks as it falls. It's like a little pocket of space in there."

"Good. Wouldn't want Cochlea to be crushed."

Lux received a punch in the shoulder for that remark.


End file.
